SINGAPORE Law and Practice Contributed by: Jansen Chow and Ang Leong Hao, Rajah & Tann Singapore LLP
Reciprocal Enforcement of Foreign Judgments Act 1959
served on the judgment debtor personally unless the court otherwise orders (Order 60 Rule 7 of the Rules of Court 2021). • Within three days after the service of the notice of registration (or any longer period as the court may permit), the notice or a copy of the notice must be endorsed by the person who served it with the day of the week and date on which it was served. If the notice is not so endorsed within this period, the judg - ment creditor may not apply for an enforce - ment order to enforce the foreign judgment to which the notice relates without the permis - sion of the court (Order 60 Rule 8 of the Rules of Court 2021). • A judgment creditor may apply to set aside the registration of a judgment by way of a summons supported by an affidavit (Order 60 Rule 9 of the Rules of Court 2021). (a) In this regard, Section 5(1)(a) of the REFJA provides for certain grounds where the Singapore court shall set aside the registration of foreign judgment. These grounds include: the foreign judgment was obtained by fraud; if enforcement of the foreign judgment would be con - trary to public policy of Singapore; or the judgment debtor, being a defendant in the proceedings in the foreign court, did not (notwithstanding that process may have been duly served on him in accord - ance with the law of the foreign country) receive notice of those proceedings in sufficient time to enable him to defend the proceedings, and did not appear. (b) Section 5(2)(b) of the REFJA provides that the registration may be set aside if the Singapore court is satisfied that the matter in dispute in the proceedings in the foreign court had before the date of the judgment in the foreign court been the final and conclusive judgment by a court
Third, foreign judgments may be enforced pur - suant to the Reciprocal Enforcement of Foreign Judgments Act 1959 (REFJA). Currently, only judgments from Hong Kong, Brunei Darussalam, Australia, India, Malaysia, New Zealand, Paki - stan, Papua New Guinea, Sri Lanka and the UK could be registered under the REFJA. The broad stages of registering a foreign judgment under the REFJA regime are as follows. • A judgment creditor must apply for registra - tion by way of an originating application with - out notice (Order 60 Rule 2 of the Rules of Court 2021). This application for registration must be supported by an affidavit exhibiting, amongst other things, the foreign judgment that is to be registered (Order 60 Rule 3 of the Rules of Court 2021). A judgment credi - tor may apply for registration of the foreign judgment at any time within six years after the date of the judgment or if there is any appeal against the judgment, the date of the last judgment given in those proceedings. How - ever, a foreign judgment cannot be registered if at the date of the application, it has been wholly satisfied; discharged; or it could not be enforced in the state that it originates from (Section 4 of the REFJA). • A court order giving permission to register a foreign judgment must then be drawn up by, or on behalf of, the judgment creditor. The court order must state that an application may be made to set aside the registration of the foreign judgment and must contain a noti - fication that an enforcement order to enforce the judgment will not be issued until after the expiration of that period. This court order must then be served on the judgment debtor in question (Order 60 Rule 5 of the Rules of Court 2021). A notice of registration must be
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